Uploading large folders to Dropbox from external hard drive

I've got a puzzling dilemma that I've been trying to solve for weeks. I want to backup about 500 GBs from an external hard drive to my Dropbox Pro account.

• My computer's hard drive is nowhere near as large as my EHD, so I can't just move the file to the Dropbox folder.

• I've tried using MacDropAny by Zibity to create a symbolic link, but when my EHD is no longer connected, Dropbox seems to assume these files have been deleted, and propagates the deletion to the cloud.

• I've also tried using GoodSync to do a one-way sync to the cloud, but upload speeds seem to be so slow that this is turning out to be impractical. (Dropbox's own streaming upload seems to be orders of magnitude faster.)

• Finally, I've considered moving my Dropbox folder to the EHD, but this seems very inconvenient for any times when I don't happen to have my EHD plugged in.

I've been trying to find other options, and I just haven't found anything that would seem to suit my needs. Can anyone suggest a solution that will allow me to upload this folder in a convenient and relatively speedy manor? Thanks!

Solution 1:

You can try to do this:

• reattach the drive and put the symbolic link again
• let it sync until all of the content is in dropbox
• remove the drive
• let Dropbox erase the folder content
• remove the symbolic link
• on the web, click on the button to show deleted content
• mark the folder for retrieval
• in your Dropbox client, in selective sync mark the folder so that it does not sync with your Mac

That should do what you want. And remember, you can also use the selective sync for some sub folders, so that you can still have some of the content in your Mac and without the drive.